Sunday Sermon: True love is the essence of christian faith

The liturgy of the thirtieth Sunday in ordinary time is based on the following readings: Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40. The main theme the ‘Golden rule’ of love of God and love of neighbour as we love ourselves.The first reading reminds us of the Mosaic Law, based on the love of God with all one’s mind, heart and will, and the love of one’s neighbour as oneself. In his answer to the scribe, Jesus clarifies the same point: The Old Law is summarised in the commandment of love of God and of one’s neighbour with a Christian duty of making ourselves as good neighbour to others as possible. While the Jews were given specific provisions of the law with regard to strangers and the poor and all those in need, Jesus reminds the Christians that they should always show compassion and justice to a neighbour in need. Remembering that all they do to the least among them, they do it to the Lord himself. Here Jesus is clear that the one who overlooks the needy will be punished as a wrongdoer. Both Psalm 18 and St. Paul in his letter to the brethren in Thessalonica, speak of the strength and security of one who has put all his or her trust in the Lord. St. Paul praises the brethren in Thessalonica for their acceptance of the faith and in particular for the hospitality. St. Paul appeals to us all to follow such a good example. The doctrinal message in this liturgy is on the deep meaning of love which implies not merely a people’s assent to the truths of faith, but the real, conscious, wholehearted response that makes God the chief motivation and reason in one’s life. The question posed here is how can man love God whom he or she does not experience in his or her life if he or she can not his or her neighbour created in the image of God! And the liturgy teaches us that if we have an authentic experience of God in our hearts, then we shall see God in his people and be compassionate with them all without any kind of discrimination. According to the teaching of Jesus, the characteristic of the Christian faith should be the duty to love others. Jesus emphasizes this and gives it a special importance, giving priority to the lowly, the needy, the poorest and the humblest in our society. These, he calls his brothers and sisters. And any little thing done to them, Jesus appreciates, just as any wrong done to them is punishable by him. From a pastoral point of view, we are warned against the danger of the merely nominal following of the Christian faith without it’s having any real consequences in our daily lives. With this kind of attitude, we can mislead others and ourselves into accommodating the Christian faith as a way of getting to the really more important concerns and interests of our life. Which is the betterment of our earthly life here and now. Christianity is a way of life. It is a search for the personal experience of God. It is a search for that uniquely religious and sacred experience that is to be found by those who are thirsty for it. This is done principally in a personal way, in silence and dedication to personal prayer. Once we accomplish this task, we need to rediscover as well the ultimate, religious meaning of all that we do. We do this by dedicating to God our lives, our work, our family, and other commitments in such a way that we live in Christ, as the meaning of our life. This way as Christians we feel a particular identity and a sure direction and destiny towards Christ. Christ is the model of every Christian to which our lives must gradually correspond. What our liturgy requires of us is to put in practice what we believe. It is to remember the meaning of our baptism and its consequence in our Christian life. We need to remember that as Christians we must make a difference. In our daily contacts with others we should portray our Christian intention to love others. This does not necessarily mean doing much more than others do, but doing even the little from a Christian heart; with love and understanding and respect of the person we give a helping hand. Ends